Killing Trail: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery, Book 1

When a young girl is found dead in the mountains outside Timber Creek, lifelong resident Officer Mattie Cobb and her partner, K-9 police dog Robo, are assigned to the case that has rocked the small Colorado town. With the help of Cole Walker, a local veterinarian and single father, Mattie and Robo must track down the truth before it claims another victim. But the more Mattie investigates, the more she realizes how many secrets her town holds. And the key may be Cole's daughter, who knows more than she's saying.

Lone Wolf: F.B.I. K-9, Book 1

Meg and Hawk are part of the FBI's elite K-9 unit. Hawk can sniff out bodies anywhere - living or dead - whether it's tracking a criminal or finding a missing person. When a bomb rips apart a government building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., it takes all of the team's extensive search-and-rescue training to locate and save the workers and visitors buried beneath the rubble.

Flash: A Dogleg Island Mystery

Aggie Malone is a dedicated young cop who has spent her entire life just looking for a place to call home. She never thought she'd find it in a quaint Florida village called Dogleg Island, where almost nothing ever happens. Deputy Ryan Grady is an easygoing playboy who carries a surf board in the trunk of his patrol car and lives in the same rambling beach cottage his grandfather built 70 years ago. He grew up on Dogleg Island and can't imagine ever living anywhere else. It's always been the most peaceful place he has ever known.

Smoky Mountain Tracks: A Raine Stockton Dog Mystery, Volume 1

As a native of the small town of Hansonville, North Carolina,and a wilderness rescue worker, Raine Stockton knows the Smoky Mountains as well as anyone could, but she gave up her Search and Rescue work after a tragic loss. Now she reluctantly returns to active duty to help find a young child who has been kidnapped and taken deep into the forest.

St. Nick

When Santa Claus is a cop, you better watch out. It’s not looking like a very merry Christmas for San Diego cop Nick Pappas. Suspended from his job, alienated from his family, and persecuted by the press, he’s sorely tempted to turn his gun on himself. Except for his first name, he couldn’t possibly have less in common with jolly old St. Nicholas. But when a local mall decides it needs a secret Santa to help collar some vicious muggers preying on its holiday shoppers, Nick’s persuaded to red-suit up so as to take the naughty punks down and avert a ho-ho homicide.

Open and Shut

Whether dueling with new forensics or the local old boys' network, irreverent defense attorney Andy Carpenter always leaves them awed with his biting wit and winning fourth-quarter game plan. But the fun stops the day Andy's dad, Paterson, New Jersey's legendary ex-DA, drops dead in front of him at a game in Yankee Stadium.

Digger: The Case of the Chimera Killer: Sierra the Search Dog

Bryce Finn started out using his golden retriever Sierra's nose to win at childhood games of hide-and-seek. Now 17 and Washington state's youngest SAR dog handler, Bryce and K9 Sierra are hip deep in a series of murders that some political leaders deny is happening at all.

Exposure

Capturing the seedy and sordid side of life isn't anything new for photojournalist-turned-paparazzo Graham Wells. But when a shoot turns deadly - secretly causing the car crash that takes the lives of two beloved public figures - he knows the ensuing media spotlight could easily destroy him. Fortunately, no one else knows his shameful secret except for a mysterious CIA operative, and that clandestine agent swears he'll keep quiet...for a price.

Paw Enforcement: K9, Book 1

Officer Luz is lucky she still has a job after tasering a male colleague where it counts the most. Sure, he had it coming - which is why the police chief is giving Megan a second chance. The catch? Her new partner can't carry a gun, can't drive a cruiser, and can't recite the Miranda Rights. Because her new partner is a big furry police dog. So that's what the chief meant when he called Megan's partner a real bitch...With Brigit out on the beat, Megan is writing up enough tickets to wallpaper the whole station.

Shame: A Novel

Caleb Parker has been on the run from his past ever since his father, a serial murderer known by the name of Shame, was electrocuted by the state of Florida. Wishing for nothing more than to start life anew and away from the dark shadows of his past, Caleb tries to distance himself from his father’s legacy by moving to California. But even when he’s far from his father’s killing grounds, the past catches up with Caleb when a new series of murders occurs - reminiscent of Shame’s brutal handiwork. Once more Caleb is thrust into the spotlight - only this time as the prime suspect.

Breaking Creed

Ryder Creed and his dogs have been making national headlines. They've intercepted several major drug stashes being smuggled through Atlanta's airport. But their newfound celebrity has also garnered some unwanted attention. When Creed and one of his dogs are called in to search a commercial fishing vessel, they discover a secret compartment. But the Colombian cartel's latest shipment isn't drugs. This time, its cargo is human. To make matters worse, Creed helps one of the cartel's drug mules escape.

A View to Die For: To Die for Series, Book 1

The story is not your typical murder mystery. The sleuth is not a detective, private eye, or lawyer. He's an ordinary guy with an extraordinary dog. Jacob Martin is trying to make the best of a divorce and mid-life crisis when he gets a call at two o'clock Sunday morning from his mother. His sister has been arrested for the murder of her fourth husband, and his father is near death. Thus begins an adventure that takes Jake and his golden retriever from their Colorado retreat to a backwater town in the Missouri Ozarks.

The Homecoming

Seven years ago, young Stella Pierce vanished from the face of the earth. Now her grieving, broken family - along with Detective Orson Cheever, who never stopped working her case - is stunned by her mysterious return. The now-teenage girl claims to have spent her missing years in the company of Travelers - extraterrestrial nomads - voyaging through space. Despite her family's effort to keep Stella's incredible tale secret, the story becomes a national sensation.

Multiple Wounds: A Novel

After the brutal murder of an art gallery owner, the beautiful and mysterious artist Holly Troy seems to be the key to finding out what really happened on the night of the homicide. Unfortunately, Holly also suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and many of her personalities come straight from classical mythology, from the powerful Cronos and Pandora to the fickle Fates. Holly has no idea who she was the night of the crime - whether she witnessed anything, or even if she was the killer herself. Homicide detective Orson Cheever must unravel the complex labyrinth of Holly’s mind before he can find the truth.

Soho Dead: The Soho Series, Book 1

Kenny Gabriel is three years away from turning sixty, has forty-three quid in the bank and is occasionally employed to find people who would rather not be found. Broke, clientless and depressed, he knows things can't get much worse. Then he's summoned to the office of London media magnate Frank Parr, whose daughter, Harry, is missing - and there's ten grand on the table to get her back. But he and Frank have a history he'd rather not revisit.

Blood on the Tracks: Sydney Rose Parnell Series, Book 1

A young woman is found brutally murdered, and the main suspect is the victim's fiancé, a hideously scarred Iraq War vet known as the Burned Man. But railroad police Special Agent Sydney Rose Parnell, brought in by the Denver Major Crimes unit to help investigate, can't shake the feeling that larger forces are behind this apparent crime of passion. In the depths of an icy winter, Parnell and her K9 partner, Clyde - both haunted by their time in Iraq - descend into the world of a savage gang of rail riders.

The Right Side

LeAnne Hogan went to Afghanistan as a rising star in the military and came back a much lesser person, mentally and physically. Now missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred, she can barely remember the disastrous desert operation that almost killed her. She is confused, angry, and suspects the fault is hers, even though nobody will come out and say it. Shattered by one last blow - the sudden death of her hospital roommate, Marci - LeAnne finds herself on a fateful drive across the country, reflecting on her past and seeing no future.

Desert Flowers

Rose and Elmer have created an idyllic sanctuary for themselves and their five daughters in Mexico's Baja California desert. Out there in the middle of nowhere, blissfully cut off from the burdens of modern society, they're free to raise their beautiful family...and preserve its secret.

The River Is Dark

In a small town along the Mississippi River, separate but nearly identical attacks have left two married couples brutally murdered in their homes. A young boy—the lone survivor of the killings—now lies comatose in the hospital. And the police’s only lead is the boy’s terrified description of the assailant: a “monster."

In Dog We Trust

After a bad divorce and a brief prison term for computer hacking, 42-year-old Steve Levitan has returned to his home town of Stewart's Crossing and taken a part-time job as an adjunct professor of English at his alma mater, Eastern College. While walking around his gated community, he becomes friendly with his next-door neighbor, Caroline Kelly, and her golden retriever, Rochester. When Caroline is shot and killed while walking Rochester, Steve becomes the dog's temporary guardian. Together, these two unlikely sleuths work to uncover the mystery behind Caroline's death.

A Cold War

Nina Granville believes her business trip to Alaska will give her a short respite from the merry-go-round that came with her engagement to Congressman Terrence Donnelly. But instead of allowing her the peace she craves, Nina's getaway from the public eye means that no one witnesses her abduction into a very cold hell.

A Criminal Defense

When a young reporter is found dead and a prominent Philadelphia businessman is accused of her murder, Mick McFarland finds himself involved in the case of his life. The defendant, David Hanson, is Mick's best friend, and the victim, a TV news reporter, had reached out to Mick for legal help only hours before her death. Mick's played both sides of Philadelphia's courtrooms. As a top-shelf defense attorney and former prosecutor, he knows all the tricks of the trade. And he'll need every one of them to win.

The Old Man

To all appearances, Dan Chase is a harmless retiree in Vermont with two big mutts and a grown daughter he keeps in touch with by phone. But most 60-year-old widowers don't have multiple driver's licenses, savings stockpiled in banks across the country, and a bugout kit with two Beretta Nanos stashed in the spare bedroom closet. Most have not spent decades on the run.

Publisher's Summary

When LAPD detective Michael Gideon and his police-dog partner, Sirius, are assigned to the Special Cases Unit (SCU), Gideon knows their work lives will be anything but ordinary. SCU gets the cases no one else wants, the unusual and bizarre crimes that need special handling and special investigators. When a high-school student is found crucified in a local park, Gideon and Sirius must face up to the gruesome tableau and the motivation behind the murder. Complicating matters is a nightmare from their past, the scars of a terrible fire that nearly cost them their lives. The blaze left Gideon ravaged by PTSD - and yet somehow imbued him with an eerie prescience that gives him unusual insights into the crimes he investigates.

Perfect, just perfect. Horrific beginning, as LAPD cop Michael Gideon and his police dog, Sirius, are trapped in a burning forest in pursuit of a killer. The killer shoots at them, hits Sirius, but Gideon forces the killer to help him carry the wounded dog out through a wall of flame. They all survive, the killer is sentenced, and becomes an eerie presence in the book. Both Sirius and Gideon are badly burned, but both go on to become the protagonists of what will -- I hope - become a new police procedural series for Alan Russell.

Burning Man is one of those "just five minutes more" books you can't find a place to stop listening. The cases Gideon and his "partner" Sirius get are fascinating -- a newborn baby abandoned on church steps, a teen-aged bully crucified on a tree in the park. There's a romantic interest, but just enough to make Gideon a real person. I like how Sirius is included in everything -- he's not a "sleuth", like some of the cat books, but not since Carol Lea Benjamin created PI Rachel Alexander and her pit bull companion 'Dash' has a dog played such a significant -- dare I say 'meaty'? Sirius is addicted to In 'N Out Burgers -- role in a book, and done it so well. Nothing cutesy here, just a really smart police dog with a brave and interesting human.

The narration is excellent -- thank Gd for a narrator who can pronounce California place names correctly! Couldn't be better.

I liked the story, and in the hands of a good narrator, I think it had some nice potential. But unfortunately, Jeff Cummings was not the man for this job. Because of a serious lack of variety in voicing characters, he fails in setting the mood of tension and mystery this book demands. His delivery is flat and strangely pedantic for most of the minor characters. As a result, the story loses what little depth and texture it possessed, becoming as light and inconsequential as an hour of Hawaii Five O.

I enjoy the search for my next favorite police procedural series. This one has lots of promise, and I will definitely look into the author's second book. I liked the characters, including police dog, Sirius. I felt the beginning of the book would be predictable, but the author introduced two different and intriguing cases for detective Michael Gideon (Special Cases). The search is on for the parents of an abandoned infant which connects to Gideon's back-story. The second story has to do with the murder of a local school's athlete.

The narrator, Jeff Cummings, did a nice job. All around - an enjoyable listen.

I managed to finish this book, but I was complaining all the way. Cummings does a find job reading the narration, but when it comes to dialogue this is without question the most irritating performance I have ever heard. When the hero talks, his humor is dated and lame, but it's made much worse by Cummings' sing-song delivery with every line being spoken brightly and enthusiastically and ending with an upward lilt, so that every bit of dialogue sounds like it's a question.

Worse, there is no emotion in any of the dialogue--a serious comment is treated with the same phoney enthusiasm as the hero's bad-joke quips.

As for characters other than the hero, they're even worse. Cummings seems to believe that all women speak in high, breathy voices. And every line they speak also sounds like it ends in a question.

I have heard Cummings before but don't remember his dialogue being this outrageously bad. Granted, the author's bad puns and lame humor don't help, but I'm pretty sure that if I'd been reading the written word, I wouldn't have found the cliches quite as irritating.

I bought the first and second books in the series at the same time, and will be reading book two on Kindle, but staying away from Cummings performance an audio.

Now, if only Audible had an alert that would allow readers to tag authors they dislike to avoid the possibility of buying one of their books again.

This story is about LA cop Michael Gideon and his police dog Sirius, both of whom were badly burned in a fire with the two of them being the heroes. Gideon had already lost his wife to illness. As he fights back he is assigned to the Special Cases Unit. The special case in this book is a heart breaker. There is so much more to this wonderful novel. My only disappointment is with narrator Jeff Cummings. There has to be some job that he is better at than narrating audiobooks.

I have always been fascinated by K9 dogs and teams. This was not disappointment. The relationship was one I would hope each team has. They went through so much with the fire that nearly killed them both, the haunting by the criminal they brought in and the life after recovery from burns and loss of his wife before the fire.

What does Jeff Cummings bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I very much like the main character voice and the drama was well played and not overdone. As so often a male voice does not do the females as well, but this was good.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

His caustic humor make me smile and often laugh. I did love the relationship between the "partners" and later with his new lady. She handled his scars well and I very much liked that they were not ignored but dealt with. They read each other well.

Any additional comments?

This was a good cop story, K9, and over all bad guys investigations. The abandoned baby story line and his background was really good and emotional.<br/><br/>I would recommend either the print, ebook or audio book to anyone who likes mysteries, cops and especially K9 cops.

Didn't go in any sort of order, first listened to Guardians of the Night, and just finished Burning Man... can't wait to get all in the series. I love Russell's writing and wit; and couldn't have gotten a better narrator the Jeff Cummings to bring the story and that quit wit to the listener. Thank you to both!

The narrator's voice bothered me enough that sometime it pulled me out of the story. He has a tendency to become nasal and made the protagonist sound snide. The protagonist has a wry, sarcastic sense of humor, but the narrator made it unbearable. And he made everything the love interest said sound like a come-on.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Burning Man?

The opening scenes about the fire

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jeff Cummings?

I don't know enough about other narrators to make a knowledgeable suggestion

Had I known this audiobook was peopled with Catholic characters including praying nuns I'd never have bought it. I thought an LA cop with a canine partner would be right up my street but I found him a rather sanctimonious character. Liked Sirius his dog though. I object to doses of religion in novels just as I lose all interest in series once the female lead reproduces and the novels become full of maternal outpourings. Give me Joe Pike, an extremely rare vegetarian central character bless him with no obvious religious beliefs and the sense of justice I heartily espouse. I shan't buy another in this series. The narrator did a fine job.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

MarieSciFiAddict

Norwich UK

6/5/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Very enjoyable read"

Interesting police (LAPD) story with a human interest twist. I'm now downloading the rest of the series.

Took me a while to get used to the narrator, but got there eventually. He's has a... slaptick type of voice. Like a comical 1940's gumshoe voice. You grow to love it though.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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